Page 1 of Following Their Heart

Prologue

Rev

A lone figure,hulking and dark, melds with the shadows at the edge of the pines. I don’t need night vision goggles to know who it is. The way he silently stares at Grim’s camper gives it away. It’s Jud. Our leader, and the only one of us who has a problem sharing Cora, the one woman any of us know about—possibly the only female survivor of the virus that nearly wiped out mankind.

Ironic, since sharing her was his idea in the first place.

Cora came to us a little over a week ago, literally stumbling onto our mountain with her captor hot on her heels. Jud rescued her, executed the asshole piece of garbage that had been abusing her for two years, brought her into our fold, and decreed that she would share a bed with one of us every night. Since there are seven of us survivors here at Eagle Peak, that meant every night of Cora’s week was spoken for. At least that’s how it was before she convinced Jud to let her run her own show.

None of us expected the meek and bedraggled girl who stole our hearts to blossom as quickly as she has. Not even me. My Gift of prophecy showed our Heart coming to us. It showed us loving and sheltering her. It showed her beginning to heal us as we healed her. But it didn’t show her blossoming into a sex goddess who knows what she wants and is learning how to ask for it.

And, hotdamn,are we happy to give her what she wants!

So now, despite the Judge’s initial ruling, Cora is free to spend her nights with one, more, or none of us. She’s also free to enjoy her men any time of the day. Jud has reluctantly agreed to let her dictate her own time. He’s trusting her to keep things fair, showing no favorites and keeping the peace.

Of the eight of us here at this settlement, seven are pleased as punch with the new arrangement, including our sweet Cora. The one who isnotpleased currently glowers at Grim’s camper while the moon stalks through the tips of the evergreens. Because that’s where Cora chose to spend her time tonight—with Grim.

The choice, in and of itself, ain’t the real problem, though. The problem is what might be happening inside that camper. Because up until recently, our little beauty has been exploring her sexuality under the security of a firm boundary. No insertion. Her gorgeous, weeping pussy has been off limits to all of us, and rightly so. She wasn’t ready for anything more than kissing and petting and some clit play, and no wonder, considering what she went through before she came to us.

That’s changing, though, and each one of us seemed to have a hand in it—heh-heh, a hand.(I might be the oldest asshole here at fifty-two, but I ain’t above chuckling at a ribald joke.) I noticed the change for myself yesterday morning.

The night before was my fist night with Cora. Noticing how skittish she was, I took charge and let her know I’d be her responsible, protective, and caring daddy. I would step up and care for her body, mind, and soul. And then I devoted myself to proving the truth of that promise. I stroked her hair, told her a bedtime story, and dispelled her incorrect assumption that she was broken because she didn’t want to have sex with any of us after the hell she’d lived through.

I listened to her vent her frustrations about Jud’s rules, and I taught her that she has this little thing called agency. It was my honor and pleasure to watch the change in her as she internalized the vital truth of her big-C, Choice.

Suffering as the captive of an abusive piece of shit had caused her to forget that no man has the right to her body. Whether or not to share her body isherchoice and hers alone. Having that choice stolen from her wasnother fault. It was a despicable crime. Her choice still belongs to her, even if, for a time, she hadn’t had the say she deserved. Her agency to make her own choices applies to Jud’s rules, too. She doesn’t have to follow any man’s rules if she chooses not to. It’s up to her. She might find it beneficial to follow. She might find it more beneficial to refuse. Either way, the power over her being rests inside ofher.

Her pretty face opened with wonder as I explained these things, and when she had herah-hamoment of understanding, I was so goddamned proud of her. Was even more proud of her in the morning, when she insisted on using her agency to give me the sweetest, sexiest blowjob of my life. And later, when she bravely let her daddy guide her in a little self-pleasuring exercise.

I thought it prudent that her first experience withwelcomeinsertion be at her own hand. After all, how can a woman wisely entrust the priceless gem of her pleasure to another without first understanding its true worth? Though she was hesitant at first, Cora did not disappoint. My little lamb followed my instructions and learned that insertion is nothing to fear. She learned she has power over it. And she learned that it can be amazing.

I guess my instincts were right, because a few hours later, I had two fingers deep in her tight channel while she sucked Jud’s cock from her sexy-as-fuck perch on Jud’s desk. I hadn’t expected our two-man strategy session to end up with our Heart interrupting us and, moments later, writhing in pleasure between us, but I certainly didn’t mind.

Now, Cora’s with Grim. In his bed. Possibly—hellprobably—on his cock. The first cock she’ll have taken willingly in her life. The thought of her getting off on fat, Ukrainian dick makes me proud as hell at how far she’s come. It also makes me hot as fuck. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on that camper wall! I suspect the others feel the same. Well, everyone except Jud.

My Gift has shown me visions of Jud standing separate from the rest of us, his face in shadow, not unlike how he appears now, gaze trying to bore through the plastic siding of that camper. I get a sense of foreboding around him. I think the Working is warning me that our leader is struggling with this whole sharing business.

What the warning means, and what I can possibly do about it, I have yet to learn. If I’m patient and don’t try to force it, the Working will reveal what I need to know when I need to know it. In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on our Judge and make sure he doesn’t take out his frustrations on the one member of Eagle Peak who is pure and precious and utterly priceless.

Our Heart.

Turning from the brooding man, I stalk inside the lodge. My bare feet take me upstairs to the dorm, where I fall into an expectant sleep and wait for the Working to reveal its will.

Chapter 1

Cora

I know it’s a dreambecause I went to bed with Grim in his camper, yet here I am in my own bed with Shep lapping at my breasts and Doc worshipping me with his mouth between my legs. It’s a glimpse of almost-reality, complete with rising emotion and sharp pleasure. All at once, I feel like I’m inside my body, but at the same, time looking through a window into another time and place. It’s a fantasy, but not one that I initiated.

Not long ago, I would have felt weird fantasizing about two men while lying in the arms of another. I don’t feel that way, anymore. All seven of the men here are mine. And I’m theirs. We’re a team. A family.

So, I embrace the dream, relaxing into the swirl of Doc’s tongue in just the right place and the hot, wet nibbling of Shep’s lips on the puckered bud of my nipple. As I begin to reach a decadent peak, the dream shifts.

My pleasure is replaced by a sense of foreboding as I watch Doc and Shep enter a cave and approach the cage of Bernard, the pelican from New Orleans that was caught spying on our settlement. In Rev’s sermon last night, he talked about how Bernard’s mind is linked to some guy down south, some survivor running a settlement of his own. Raptor is his name, and, according to Rev, he’sno-bueno.The jerk is planning to attack Eagle Peak, and he’s using his Gift of commanding birds and other flying things to gather information about us.

Thanks to his spies, Raptor knows about my existence. I’m the only female my guys know about, possibly the only woman left alive in the former United States. I hope that’s not the case, but Raptor’s interest in me when he’s more than a thousand miles away makes me suspect he’s not aware of many other women. Either way, Raptor thinks he can stroll up our mountain and take me from my guys.

He thinks wrong.

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